to talk of Brutus
Note by Heny Craik to Letters 58 from Journal To Stella

The current opinion of the day, in which Swift fully shared, entirely approved of Brutus's action. We have a poem in his praise by Cowley, beginning —

'Excellent Brutus of all human race
The best till Nature was improved by grace' —

and a Tragedy by the Duke of Buckingham, in which no less praise is accorded to him. Cf. also Gullivers Travels, in Vol. II. p. 274.